The Rev. Robert Lundquist Palm Sunday 3/20/05 St Paul’s, Ft Collins

Matthew 12:1-11    - Online Text -

Matthew 26:36 – 27:66   - Online Text -

“We all have some dying to do. Jesus showed us how it should be done.”
The late Bishop Stephen Neill


We are certainly brought face-to-face with our mortality and that of Jesus as well this morning. We have swung to emotional extremes, from the exhilaration of the triumphant entry into Jerusalem – cheering and waving the palms to greet with “Hosanna!” the Messiah – to the shock and horror of the betrayal, arrest and execution of Jesus. The Passion (literally “suffering” in Greek) of Jesus is hard to hear, it takes a toll upon us, the listeners. Palm Sunday always seems to me to be like a birthday party in a graveyard, or a wedding where everyone is dressed in black.

So why do we tell this story? Why do we rehearse the Passion every year?

• To remember. In Greek, anamnesis – “not forgetting.” We tell the story to remember an event for which we were not actually present. In our holy imagination we picture the events of Jesus’ last day, and we dare not forget. We practice anamnesis in the Eucharist when we retell that story: “On the night before he was betrayed, Jesus took bread… Jesus took wine…” The Passion is important for us to remember because this horrible story concerns me, it concerns you, it’s about us.

• We tell the story in order to more fully realize who Jesus is. It’s a public story, told to the world. For Jesus was not assassinated in some dark alley, he was pinned to a cross near the city where all could see him. Crucifixion was meant to be a shameful death – one was hung naked, suffering and helpless. What does it mean for us to follow a disgraced leader? For Christians, literally “little Christs,” what does it say about our God? A mentor of mine was fond of reminding me that Jesus was not an anonymous donor, that he suffered and died publicly. This is who Jesus is, turning the ways of the world upside down, dying before the eyes of the world.

• We tell the story in order to consider the reality of betrayal. A surface reading of the Passion Gospel would lead one to pin the whole thing on Judas, whose name means “Jew.” This leads us in the wrong direction, letting us off the hook and fueling centuries of hatred against Jews as “Christ-killers” and the like. That understanding is a betrayal of everything that Jesus did and taught. It’s simply and tragically wrong.

When we try to say that Judas was the betrayer, we are neglecting:
Peter’s weakness in denying Christ 3 times;
The Disciples fleeing in fear;
Pilate’s craven self-interest;
Caiaphas’ total lack of principle;
The fickleness of the people, who so quickly went from cheers to jeers;
And Judas, in whom we see the love of money outweighing all else.

The failings, we realize, are ours. Weakness, fear, self-interest, lack of principle, fickleness and intemperate love of money – these are my sins, my betrayal of Jesus and God. In the Passion we face our own weakness and impotence, and realize:

I am not the savior.

When you think you’ve got it all under control, when you believe you can actually make it all come out right through your own power and actions, when you triumph at the praise and adulation you receive from others – the Passion speaks to you. Like the palms of victory that become signs of defeat and ashes of shame, so too are we in our mortality.

I am not the savior.

I am dust, and to dust shall I return.

From where is my help to come?

Why have you forsaken me, my God?


We tell the Passion story because we all have some dying to do. And Jesus showed us how it should be done.